Orange-Ulster, Sullivan BOCES boards oppose merger

Tuesday

Feb 10, 2009 at 2:00 AM

LIBERTY — Going into Thursday's public hearing, there's already been considerable outcry against the idea of merging Orange-Ulster and Sullivan BOCES in what even state officials say would be a rare merger.

Victor Whitman

LIBERTY — Going into Thursday's public hearing, there's already been considerable outcry against the idea of merging Orange-Ulster and Sullivan BOCES in what even state officials say would be a rare merger.

Both BOCES boards oppose the plan. The proposal is also drawing mixed reactions among Sullivan and Orange school districts, which purchase services from BOCES.

There have been four mergers in 16 years, the last a combination of two BOCES representing several upstate counties into the Greater Southern Tier BOCES.

But one expert says a merger, ones between BOCES with more than 50 years of tradition, need not be controversial.

Gerald Benjamin, director of a regional education research center at SUNY New Paltz, said this differs substantially from a school district merger, where people have longstanding ties to their schools.

He's a former director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the same group recommending the merger.

For one thing, BOCES is already a regional entity, providing services for several schools, which share its costs, Benjamin said.

"It is hard in this case to invoke the value of 'community' or 'smallness' as with smaller school districts," he said.

He also doesn't believe a merger will result in a shift of costs to Orange, a concern there. The state would pay subsidies into a consolidated BOCES, he noted.

"All concerns should be addressed if change is to occur," Benjamin said. "But the status quo should not be maintained simply because it is familiar. A solid cost-benefit analysis should weigh the advantages of change against the potential liabilities."

That Rockefeller study recommended classes should continue in both counties because of travel distances, while combining administrative functions and boards. A merger could save money and enhance programs by pooling resources, the study found.

State Education Commissioner Richard Mills, who has indicated he agrees with the study, must hold a public hearing before making a decision.

In parts of Sullivan, "merger" is a dirty word following the rocky decade after three western Sullivan school districts combined into Sullivan West.

"It is inevitable that they will close down facilities in Sullivan County and trek our kids to neighboring counties," said board member Noel van Swol, who sponsored the resolution. "I think the state Education Department has absolutely no credibility in Sullivan County or in the surrounding counties since the Sullivan West fiasco."

Van Swol's colleague on the board, Shaun Sensiba, himself a critic of the handling of the Sullivan West merger, disagrees.

He doesn't think anybody will care, as long as the quality of the programs and the costs remain the same, or improve.

"If they have one BOCES for the state and give great services for all, then merge them all," he said. "But if you end up trading off service for cost, then they need to tell us what the trade-off is now, not after they have done it."

A public hearing will be held 7-9 p.m. Thursday in the Liberty High School Auditorium.

vwhitman@th-record.com

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